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To start off rosbuild based packages, aka dry packages, continue to work and exist using the old tool chain and building from source. We no longer support them being released and built into debian packages, but you can continue using them from source as you always have. More specifics below.

1. You cannot build a dry package with catkin_make you need to use the older build toolchain and the common entry point of rosmake.

2. The challenges of moving from rosbuild to catkin are that you need to update your CMakeLists.txt and switch from manifest.xml to package.xml There is a guide for migrating packages here: http://wiki.ros.org/catkin/migrating_from_rosbuild

3. The effort required when porting a package forward between ROS distributions depends heavily on what package and which distribution change. The core of the ROS ecosystem is quite stable. However if you depend on actively developed or research code near the fringes. You will need to fix any changed APIs that you rely upon.

4. There's only one major issue you can run into in terms of dependencies and that is a catkin based package cannot depend on a rosbuild based package so you will need verify that all dependencies have been ported forward before attempting to do a package.

5. Overlays are generally useful for speeding up development. They can give you a smaller workspace and let you iterate more quickly. You can also continue to use an overlay of dry packages on top of wet, catkin, packages.